Cynthia Erivo has furiously branded an edited Wicked poster as “offensive”.
The British actress, who stars as Elphaba alongside Ariana Grande as Glinda in the upcoming musical movie, took to social media on Wednesday to slam a doctored version of the official film poster.
Erivo made it clear she wasn’t impressed after an online fan account posted an altered image showing Elphaba’s face shadowed by her hat.
“This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen,” Erivo fumed on her Instagram Story. “None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.”
The 37-year-old actress went on to further explain her hostile reaction to the edited poster.
Erivo pointed out the differences between the illustrated poster for the original theatre production of Wicked and the upcoming big screen adaptation.
“The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION. I am a real-life human being, who chose to look right down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer …because, without words we communicate with our eyes,” she explained.
“Our poster is an homage not an imitation,” she reasoned, before she added, “to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is just deeply hurtful.”
The star also posted an image of the official movie poster, which showed her posing alongside Grande and looking straight into the camera, to prove her point.
She finished her message with a final parting shot: “Let me put this right here,” Erivo said in reference to the poster. “To remind you and cleanse your palette.”
Wicked is released in cinemas from 22 November.
